1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to watering apparatuses. More specifically, it relates to an animal activated watering apparatuses for various livestock such as cows, pigs and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Animal activated watering apparatuses have been known for some time. One well known example is the "Stingy Nipple" nozzles manufactured by Hjalmarsons. This unit comprises a hollow nipple body and an actuator which is biased against an internal O-ring seal by means of a conventional spring. The water actuator is biased to the neutral position in approximately the center of the hollow nipple body. When the animal desires a drink of water, the waterer may be activated by the animal's biting on the nipple body. This causes the water actuator to be deflected from its neutral bias position, breaking the seal between the water actuator and the internal O-ring. This in turn causes water to flow out of the nipple body for the animal.
One reason for the desirability of having a waterer activated on an as needed basis by the animal, is to prevent the contamination which results from an open water supply. This necessitates a frequent changing of water in order to prevent disease from affecting the animal. This requires a great deal of time and effort on the part of the farmer to monitor the water supply and constantly change it.
One drawback of this type of nozzle waterer, is the weakness associated with the spring biasing member. While springs are well suited in applications involving compression, they are much less durable when the compression involves a lateral component as well as a longitudinal component. Such lateral component eventually leads to breakage of the spring. Consequently, many of these types of watering apparatuses require the springs to be changed relatively frequently due to the breakage. As a result, numerous attempts have been made to replace the spring biasing member with a more resilient substitute.
These efforts have included the apparatuses included in the Sparks, Freehaufer, and Lang patents. These devices all substitute some material in place of the spring mechanism in order to bias the actuating pin into a neutral position.
Lang, U.S. Pat. No. 3,698,685 discloses an animal actuated drinking valve having a tubular body member encasing an actuating pin urged forward by an elongated resilient biasing member. This forward biasing creates a fluid tight seal with an O-ring within the tubular body member. Deflection of the actuating pin from its neutral biased position, causes the seal between the O-ring and the actuating pin to be open, resulting in the flow of liquid through the tubular body. The main body portion of the Lang biasing member is generally rectangular in shape and engages the inside surface of the tubular body. The biasing member includes a reduced forward portion cylindrical in shape which engages the rear surface of the actuating pin sealing flange.
Freehaufer U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,570 discloses a nipple type waterer with a resilient elastomeric plug functioning as both a spring and a flow regulating orifice. The elastomeric plug is designed for threadable engagement within the flow housing. The forward end of the resilient elastomeric plug contains a seal ring concentrically surrounding the orifice running longitudinally through the plug. The seal ring creates an annular sealing contact with the rear surface of the actuating pin and which maintains the actuating pin in a normal fluid tight sealing relation with a conventional O-ring. As with the Lang device, deflection of the actuating pin from its normal biased position, causes fluid to flow through the waterer.
Finally, Sparks U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,225 discloses another springless nipple waterer valve having a valve body in which a valve member is positioned and having a head projecting in bearing engagement with the abutment member of one end of the valve body. Contact between the apex portion of the abutment member and the valve member causes the valve member to maintain a neutral fluid tight seal against the O-ring within the valve body. Deflection of the valve member of Sparks causes a fluid flow in the valve body similar to that in the Freehaufer and Lang patents,
A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a biasing member for easily replacing the spring biasing member in conventional nipple waterers.
An additional objective is to provide a kit by which the actuating stem and biasing spring in a conventional nipple waterer may be removed and replaced with the biasing member and actuating stem of the present invention,
Another objective is to provide a biasing member which is adapted to fit in waterers of varying diameters without the need for threadably engaging the biasing member with the tubular body,
Another objective is to provide a kit which may be used to replace conventional waterers having either two piece or single integral piece actuators.
Another objective is to provide an improved waterer which may utilize either a two piece or single integral piece actuator.
A final objective is to provide a method of replacing a conventional one- or two-piece actuator and biasing member with the actuator and biasing member of the present invention,